Species details: Click on each item to see an explanation of that item (Note: opens a new window)

Perennial herbs up to 2hm high, growing from a short horizontal, regularly constricted rhizome, forming small tufts. Roots wiry with small tubers at the tips. Leaves basal, usually 6-8 per plant, linear-lanceolate, 5-42 cm long, hairless or minutely puberulous on the veins. Peduncle flattened, narrowly winged, often with a single sterile bract below the inflorescence. Inflorescence subglobose, dense. Pedicels 1-3 per node, up to 5 mm long in fruit. Flowers white with dark-tipped outer tepals. Capsule shallowly deltoid, up to 6 mm long, transversely ridged.